End of a journey...
Brief, shallow and highly innaccurate chronicle of Withywindle
by
Christiniel
It had all begun on November 2nd, 2010. Lotro was going through a paying model transition and with the change to Free-to-play way of experiencing the world of Middle-Earth, and due to expectation of high influx on new players, Turbine has decided to increase the number of servers.
And there it was. Alongside newly formed servers across the sea, Withywindle server has come alive. Named after small stream in Old Forrest, Withywindle was about to offer nice, pleasant home for many players in upcoming years. Many of those players and their actions helped to shape Withywindle as a server and community within it, and the next few words are all about it.
Every new launch of video-game, or in this case online-game, brings some sort of competitivnes of who is going to be first. First in finishing the whole game, doing a memorable achievement or in long term - being the most enduring one.
Withy was no exception as many players raced through this beloved world with the goal of being first level 65 character, as it was the level cap back then. Due to old archives we can safely say that the very first level capped player was a guardian named Spicy.
Similar case goes to one of the very first kinship. The fight was fierce and the winner is hard to track down. Best we can do is the narrow the competion down to the minimum. Among the first was Destiny of Heroes (yet most of their players transferred from Eldar), Hispania and Avant Garde. Its fair to say though that only first two kins had significant impact on the server and only Hispania made it to the very end of it. Speaking of the “whole-runners”, or kinships, which made it from the pretty much very beginning to the very end, we shall mention Hispania, Bastion, Edhel Annon, Czech Royal Knights, Sentinels of Hope and the kins from the early 2011 – The Outlaw Brotherhood, TheBrightMelody, Eleventh Legion,The One Kinship, Myrmidones and the Legends of the Rohirrim.
When we mentioned Spicy earlier on, we must mention his kinship Defenders of the Sacred Pie. They were one of the first challengers of then end-game content and their regular collaboration with another pro-raiding kin, and I dare to say kinship who helped to form some of the server-best players, Ithillien Illuminated, resulted in many server first of the “old” content, while eagerly anticipating the then new and now popular Ost Dunhoth raid, which came by the end of March 2011.
Hated by some, seeked by the others. Beating the newest, hardest content thrown to us by the developers was always topic of the Prancing Pony's drunk-talk. Kinship and special raiding groups competing against each other in “who would be the first in completing certain challenge”, was often subject discussed on the global chat and although despised be many and participated by few, the “success” of Withy raiding is somehow good indicator of the state of the server as a unit.
Because lets face the facts first. Over the course of three years, in which developers gave us 3 raid clusters (Ost Dunhoth, Tower of Orthanc and Erebor raids) only one cluster was beaten on the level which it was meant to be beaten on. And even that has been done by the end of the expansion with every possible updates and few nerfs to it.
But first things first. As mentioned, spring of 2011 was the Ost Dunnhoth times. Defenders of the Sacred Pie started crumbeling away and eventually merged the forces with their friends in Ithillien Illuminated. And there it all became. Battle of the titans – II vs. Destiny of Heroes, another elite kinship led by Plougholas. The rivalry that affected many kins on the servers. Many players joined them or them and therefore weakened the casual groups, which had to fight hard to maintain their player base to be able to compete.
And yet the battle of Ost Dunnhoth ended without a winner. Despite the relentless efforts and significant progression, none of the groups was able to finish OD T2C on-level and the competion was concluded at the beginning of the Rise of the Isengard expansion, during which DoH claimed the title Challengers of Gotheron.
Second half of the year 2011 brought an unfortunate news. Several II members including their leader Gwarth decided to transfer from Withy and leave the once great kinship to fade away. Legends say that nowadays only one member of the II, Ghorin – once mightiest of all the Champions, remains within its ranks and holds the legacy.
With the end of II, some players joined DoH, but many returned to their former kinships, in which they started practicing in lights of new upcoming raid – Tower of Orthanc.
Now its propably good time to mention a person, who propably helped the Withywindle PvE the most. If the DoH and II was two major groups, this person was the kinless balance. If I said that the competion in OD was the two sided thing, it wouldnt be precisely correct. The group(s), which was formed around this person, always contained members of various kinships and under his leadership they contested in all three major instance clusters and almost everytime came on top. And that person is no other than Anya the guardian.
He might not have been the best at his character, but his leadership skills were undeniable and it all showed up the most during the Orthanc cluster. When most of the kinships were struggeling with Kálbak in Lighting wing, they Anya and company has already beaten t1 Saruman. Of course, under todays standards not that of a achievement, but back in the days on one of the lowest populated server it was a thing. Their quick progression through tier 2 unfortunately slowed down during 2012 and with the ongoing absences of their members, they stopped with server-best – Acid T2 on level. After that, as well as majority of his group, Anya himself started to showing less and less in the game and the fight for ToO T2C resulted in clash of two highly unexpected contenders for the Saruman title, two national kinships – Czech Royal Knights and Portuguese Empire.
They both have been progressing relentlessly during the launch of Riders of Rohan and level cap 85 and in very close ending, including several epic knock-downs in phase 5 during Saruman fight, eventually Czech Royal Knights grabbed the Original Challengers of Saruman for themselves. But it was rather Pyrrhic victory. Since Portuguese empire became number one kinship in both PvP and PvE for a long period, CRK started to downfall ever since and although its base is still valid, more than complex group it now provides number of once top individuals.
The first half of 2012 brought a great news upon Withy. At late spring it has become a recommended server and that lasted for almost a year. During that time the population of once the lowest populated server jumped up tremendously. Especially during late 2012 with highly anticipated Hobbit movie. That being said, the influx of players helped with the neverending fluctuation, because earlier that year Rangers of Mirkwood, the biggest kin in that time, decided to transfer away. The gap created by them was luckily filled quickly by newly formed kinship Dunedain of the North, who has had propably the biggest player base till the last days.
Year 2012 was full of kinship turbulences. Beside Rangers departure, even DoH was shattered as several of their players parted their ways to create Destructive Influence, supposedly new end-game kinship, which unfortunately for them didnt last long. With the sudden lack of solid and both social and raiding kinship, the merge of Khazad Union with two smaller kinships created Breath of Freedom. Group that set the standards for the modern kinship. Under the leadership of Isioloder (who previously stepped down as leader of CRK), they managed to teach many players the basics of raiding, which helped to maintain the level of quality on the server.
With rather underwhelming expansion, which Riders of Rohan was for some, the desire for purely raiding kinship slowly faded away across all Lotro servers. That, along with the horrendous reward system for beating t2 or challenges, resulted in very slow progress on the Erebor raids. Beside rather easy Fire of the Smaug's Bane, both Battle for Erebor and Flight of the Lonely mountain waited for their conquerors a long time. Not even the comeback of Anya and co. didnt end up better than t2 non challenges.
With the lack of dedicated raiding kinship, other means had to come in place. Newly formed personnal channel for cross-kinship communication gathered the best of best from the server and it payed off immediately. The channel of Old Friends folks, gathered around Morva, Rootsfarinas, Dunc or Rhianon managed to beat BfE t2c on the first night in summer 2013 and Flight t2c later on in December.
With the complete absence of any raid content after that, that concluded the whole PvE history of Withywindle. The whole year 2014 was still in believe of new upcoming challenges, yet the developers stated their plans clearly. In spring, Plougholas, the leader of DoH, decided to move the kinship to Snowbourn. It somehow marked an end of an era for Withy's raiding.
Until very recently the tries for the hardest content on Withywindle pretty much died, but under the leadership of folks from Sentinels of Hope, the dawn of the server was at least little brighter with one more conquest of BfE t2c.
As mentioned before, Withy was rather small server for most of the time. But besides the obvious downsides, it brought several perks as well. You might have heard of a Withy as a tight community, maybe even like familly (The Family!). I might not be that bold to say that, but the size of the player base and the reasonable flow of posts on the global chat definitely helped to create a very friendly atmospehere. And what better use of this kind of setup than to have some memorable characters and events?
It was the day before the Rise of the Isengard launch in fall 2011. We were all in Celondim, lady Windsong was going down the aisle as sir Amdareth was waiting for her. Kaldegrim was the priest and there was none, who wouldnt shed a tear. Wedding of those two, hosted by Outlaw Bortherhood was one of a kind server event and maybe the best one Withy has ever had. And who was there? More like who wasnt!?
Unfortunately beside that, Withy wasnt exactly overflowing by events every week. We had several concerts and house parties hosted by Edhel Annon, but other than that, most of the events were private occasions. During summer 2013, Fralin started organizing “flash” events, such as hide and seek in Bree or my favourite, pick anything from my bank by saying a number. His wealth managed to last the event till the end of the year and it was a nice distraction from everyday routine.
Not even Ettenmoors fighting could have been scheduled. Besides the tryout of Last Friday of the Month fights organized by Naius, which lasted for few months in the beginning of 2013, the fights stayed purely unorganized.
What Withy lacked in terms of events, it made it up in terms of individuals, who somehow helped to form the server itself. We have already heard about Anya, Morva and Roots as raid leaders, Dunc, who wasnt only part of the PvE succeses in Erebor but also the creep leader in 2014 or Plougholas, who besides leading DoH was first lvl 75 char (with Elyk) and first lvl 85 char (with Leischo).
Lynwood isnt propably name that would ring a bell. His appearance of Withy chat channels was very brief, yet important. In year 2012, when the word troll meant what it actually means, and not someone you should adress as annoying, Lynwood was exactly that person. Pioneering the “trolling” arts didnt last for long as the community reacted quickly, yet his name will always be remembered as another “Sever-first”. Its fair to mention his re-apperance years later, which ended poorly as the chat was already overflowed by his successors.
What is dedication? For some relentless trying for something, for some just waiting and for some its standing on the boxes in the 21st hall in Moria. Thalric made it to Withy Hall of fame during years 2011-2012. We can only imagine, what his daily schedule looked like. How long has he been staying there? Who knows, but even the dwarves were amazed.
If Anya was an example of a raid leader for the top-shelf players expecting only the best, Austerius was leader of the regular folks. During Orthanc raid cluster, he would invited anyone and made him look good. Thanks to him, Withy got many raiders, who might have had to wait for their chance a long time.
The story behind Grayhammer is complicated and this is not the place to discuss it. Some thinks he is a weird guy while some admires his dedication and willingess to help anybody. His clever mercenary system helped many to level through difficult landscape areas and his comic is just another interesting reflection of his personality. What else can be said about a person, who is known even by players who doesnt have world channel turned on.
And last but definitely not least.You know him by many names. Most of them cant be written here. The only Withywindle native who made himself (in)famous lotro-wide. Donald Trump of Croatia, King Z - Zrinko.
And thats it. Thats some of the people and some of the stories of Withywindle. Year 2015, last year of its active existence, started with sad news of many servers being shut down, and even though some believed that months of being recommended server would give us a chance, it was Evernight which won the lottery.
On November 30, 2015, 5 years and 28 days after its launch, Withywindle started its end.
Goodbye Withy. It was a great journey.
Lets start another one.
Christiniel, Leader of Czech Royal Knights, 5-year resident on Withywindle server
Sources: Christi's personal memory archive, Turbine lotro forums, Codemasters lotro forum archives, DoH, II, Edhel Annon, BoF websites
